Scorpene leak: Expert for strengthening cyber security set up

Cyber Law expert Virag Gupta on Wednesday called for strengthening cyber security set up following the leaks of critical documents related to the Scorpene Submarine and said it should be thoroughly investigated as to who leaked the data and at what level.

Gupta said there are multiple issues, adding most of the things will come out after a detailed investigation.

"The first point is that from where this leak has taken place. The Indian Government says that this has been done from the foreign end while the foreign companies say that they were simply the provider of the data otherwise control of the all data was with the Indian authorities. And it is also said that this data is encrypted and it was totally protected. So, the first aspect is that who leaked this data," Gupta told ANI.

"Secondly, it is said that this data was leaked in 2011. But Australian newspaper has published this because the same company is giving services to the Australian Government also. So, they are concerned about the safety of data for their product. So, whether this leakage of data is related to prior to 2011 or this leakage is up to 2016. This is also very material to know so that we can understand whether that leakage of the data is of the final product or only up to 2011," he added.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar asked Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba to analyse the extent of the leak and find out whether it is related to India or not.

Talking to the media earlier in the day, Parrikar asserted that the leak is not 100 percent.

"I have asked the Naval Chief to conduct full analysis of the incident as to what is the leak and what has been leaked about us. The first step is to identify, the second step is to identify the extent of unwarranted, but it is not all 100 percent, because we do have our final integration," Parrikar said.

Parrikar further said that they would come out with more information in the next couple of days.

On Tuesday, a report in Australian media revealed that sensitive information related to India's Scorpene submarines has been leaked, with French shipbuilder DCNS, which designed the submarine, facing a leak of documents spreading over 22,000 pages.

According to The Australian, the leak details the entire secret combat capability of the six Scorpene-class submarines that French shipbuilder DCNS has designed for the Indian Navy.

Meanwhile, the Indian Navy has said the source of the leak appears to be from overseas and not in India.

"The available information is being examined at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy) and an analysis is being carried out by the concerned specialists," the Indian Navy said in a statement.

"It appears that the source of leak is from overseas and not in India," the statement added.